The search for Onondaga Community College's next president is in the homestretch.

Final candidates were recently in Syracuse to meet with the board of trustees as well as members of OCC's staff association, OCC's administrators council, diversity council, executive council, and the student association. The college had hired Lochlin Partners, a national executive search firm, to identify candidates.

Once the Board has approved a new president, the SUNY Board of Trustees must also confirm the candidate.

College officials expect to announce their new president at the end of March.

The new president will fill a position vacated last year when Debbie Sydow resigned to assume the presidency of Richard Bland College, the junior college wing of the four-year College of William and Mary, in Virginia. Sydow had been OCC president since 1999.

Margaret "Meg" O'Connell, former chair of OCC's board of trustees, has been serving as interim college president for the last year. O'Connell said she was not a candidate for the permanent position.